A German Air Force A400M transport aircraft, which took off from Jordan, again dropped humanitarian aid to the Palestinian Gaza Strip on Saturday. It involved 22 pallets of food and medical supplies with a total weight of 9.6 tons. If possible, such flights will continue on Sunday, a German Air Force spokesman told the DPA agency in Berlin.

According to the Israeli military, which is coordinating the operation, a total of 90 pallets of humanitarian aid were dropped on Saturday. In addition to Germany, the aid also came from France, Egypt, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates.

Gaza crisis

The United Nations says the Gaza Strip is on the brink of famine. The Israeli military controls all access to the coastal enclave and has been severely restricting or denying humanitarian aid for months, as Israel ratchets up pressure on the militant Hamas movement to release the last hostages it seized during its October 7, 2023, invasion of the Jewish state.

Following growing global criticism of the suffering of Palestinian civilians, Israel has since last Sunday again allowed greater aid deliveries by ground and airdrops.

But international organizations consider airdropping aid ineffective and expensive for the relatively small quantities it can deliver. Aid workers also point out that the pallets could injure or kill people on the ground in this densely populated area.